Disney Jr. “Doc McStuffins” Kicks Ass for Girls

I’m not your average kinda girl. I was never into the Disney princesses. It wasn’t till Mulan came out that I FINALLY found a character I could identify with.

Consider the source: I spent 8 years as a softball catcher playing year round on several leagues. In fact, several of the women I played with went to the Olympics that first year they had softball as a competitive sport. Today my favorite thing to do is kickboxing. I love the classes, beating on the bag, getting my frustrations out and sweating. Sparring is also something I love doing. So basically, I’m not afraid to get dirty, play rough, go toe to toe with the boys and give them hell, and then put on a dress afterwards and steal the show.

Okay, “Doc McStuffins” has NOTHING to do with kicking ass like this, BUT I love what “Doc McStuffins” communicates to children. Basically, I see it as saying girls can be very effective in positions of power, like a doctor, i.e. yeah they can kick ass too. And the way “Doc McStuffins” does it is very subtle and natural. (Not crazy or in your face…I really mean calm, subtle and natural.) ALSO, “Doc McStuffins” is really the only health related show that takes the fear out of going to the doctor for children. Every episode is about some issue that your children can identify with and you can discuss it with them afterward. In fact, the creator of the show was inspired by her son’s bout with Ashma and how afraid he was of the doctors office. She wanted to create a show that took the fear out of medicine. The characters in “Doc McStuffins” come to her to cure them of all their ailments and she is a very calm and self assured problem solver. (The opposite of Pablo from Backyardigans who hops around having a panic attack every time something goes wrong….geez that drives me nuts.)

And you can rest assured that “Doc McStuffins” is portraying health information in an accurate way that is relevant to children because of the amount of work that goes into it in the background. I was able to meet with some of the consultants on the show, one of whom works for the Norman Lear Center at the Annenberg School for Communications at USC (my alma mater). Their job is to make sure the public health messages are portrayed accurately in the show. And in addition to having accurate messages, every show is educational and also encourages strong socialization skills. (Something I especially like because I have a son with Aspergers.)

“Doc McStuffins” will be premiering FRIDAY, March 23rd on the popular Disney Junior programming block on Disney Channel at 10am EST and then on the new Disney Junior Channel at 4pm EST. This also marks the premiere date of the new Disney Junior Channel.

I was actually able to get a glimpse of “Doc McStuffins” BEFORE it airs on Friday and let my boys watch it. My husband saw the pink and purple and saw that the main character was a girl and said “you know the boys aren’t going to like this, right?” ….but he was wrong. They were memorized the entire 30 minutes. So I guess you can say two things about that: (1) “Doc McStuffins” is also appealing to “rough and tumble” boys AND (2) “Doc McStuffins” puts children in a trance-like state where they are engrossed in her every word she says. I have NO idea how they do that. So I got to use it several times while I was cooking or doing something I didn’t want the kids into.

Total side note: It’s not everyday you get to meet the cast BEHIND the characters, but I did.

And this is the BEST VIDEO EVAH. I interviewed part of the cast of “Doc McStuffins” and the guy who plays Chilly, the stuffed snowman. His name is Jess Harnell and he’s been the voice behind some other Disney characters you will recognize in productions such as Nemo, Up, Cars, Cars 2, Toy Story, Transformers, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Simpsons, The Fairly Odd Parents, Special Agent Oso, America’s Funniest Home Videos, Chuck, & Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Check out this video of him doing some of his impressions. He almost made me pee my pants.

And yes of course, I wouldn’t make you suffer through this entire post without some swag.

Leah Segedie is the Founder of Mamavation and Bookieboo, a blogger network. After losing over 100 lbs, she started a career mentoring women in health and since then has assisted in over 3,500 lbs lost via the Mamavation community. Leah and her work has been mentioned in Ladies Home Journal, Reader's Digest, Fitness, Women's Day, CNN, ABC, CBS, the O'Reilly Factor, AOL, Entrepreneur, and Yahoo to name a few. She works from home in her fuzzy slippers.

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